LPGA's language barrier

The Ladies Professional Golf Association ripped a page from the book of "They Did What?" when it decided to require its members to become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.

The last we checked, blasting a tee shot deep into the fairway, hacking safely out of the rough or sinking a 20-foot putt doesn't require the Queen's English. Requiring all golfers to learn English in order to help market the tour or make small-talk with English-only speaking tour sponsors smacks of intolerance. It is certainly an overreaction to a marketing challenge.

LPGA Deputy Commissioner Libba Galloway says "the vast majority" of the 120 international players on the LPGA circuit already speak enough English to get by. A program begun in 2006 to help players learn English is working well, Galloway said. So where is the need to make a rule to suspend the few who cannot yet speak English well?

No other major sport has such a policy, despite growing numbers of foreign-born, non-English speaking athletes, particularly in Major League Baseball. Why should golf?